Score penalty for utilization ratio

[Anonymous]

Hello,
If I had a balance of $260 on one credit card and paid the balance down and now have a balance of $20 left over will my credit score drop because it went for 4% to 0 now. Or does it only drop if it reports $0. I have 3 credit cards with a total limit of $5,550. And only one card has a $20 balance the other 2 are $0 balances.

[Anonymous]

Search for AZEO on the forum. Maybe that will help until one of the many experts on this forum chime in.

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hello,
If I had a balance of $260 on one credit card and paid the balance down and now have a balance of $20 left over will my credit score drop because it went for 4% to 0 now. Or does it only drop if it reports $0. I have 3 credit cards with a total limit of $5,550. And only one card has a $20 balance the other 2 are $0 balances.

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The score drops happens when all your cards report $0.00

If you have one card reporting a balance, you're fine. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
If I had a balance of $260 on one credit card and paid the balance down and now have a balance of $20 left over will my credit score drop because it went for 4% to 0 now.

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You didn't drop from 4% to 0%; you dropped from 4% to 1%.  All decimals are rounded up to the nearest whole number when it comes to Fico scoring.  So, your $20 balance even if it was .003% (that's a $20 balance on a $6k limit) it's going to round up to the nearest whole number, so you're now at 1% reported utilization on that account. 

[Anonymous]

@brutalbodyshots will my score drop from that?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hello,
If I had a balance of $260 on one credit card and paid the balance down and now have a balance of $20 left over will my credit score drop because it went for 4% to 0 now. Or does it only drop if it reports $0. I have 3 credit cards with a total limit of $5,550. And only one card has a $20 balance the other 2 are $0 balances.

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No, $20 is enough to count as a balance for scoring purposes. It will help, not hurt, your scores.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
@brutalbodyshots will my score drop from that?

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Your Fico scores will never drop from a balance paydown with the lone exception being your only account with a reported [non-zero] balance reporting as $0.